It’s just like old times.
Steve Sarkisian is back in Los Angeles and with the NCAA scholarship limits behind him, brought USC back to the top of the recruiting rankings. Teams like UCLA and Arizona State did their best to keep up, but the Trojans ran away with the 2015 recruiting class.
Sarkisian locked down every prospect he recruited on national signing day. Rasheem Green, John Houston and Iman Marshall colluded after Chuma Edoga signed to give USC four 5-star recruits.
Green and Marshall are even slated to make a run at starting positions on USC’s stacked defense.
Combine this recruiting class with USC’s already young roster and the Trojans are looking like a major contender for the Pac-12 title next year.
Of course, their cross-town rival UCLA did what it could to keep up with the Trojans on signing day.
The Bruins inked multiple out of state prospects like Chris Clark, Soso Jamabo and Cordell Broadus while bolstering their thin offensive line with multiple interior line prospects. They then watched the class’ No. 1 linebacker Roquan Smith back out of his letter of intent after defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich left UCLA for a job with the Atlanta Falcons.
While the nation’s No. 1 quarterback prospect Josh Rosen will headline this class, the Bruins deserve a lot of credit for maintaining a respectable distance between their class and USC’s on NSD.
Arizona State finished third in the conference on signing day and picked up 4-star athlete Jaason Lewis’ commitment over Ole Miss. On the other hand, ASU lost out on Broadus, Houston and Green all on the same day and even saw Oregon State steal a commitment from them.
The Sun Devils still have a respectable class, but can’t be pleased by the way they closed.
Outside of those teams, no Pac-12 school made big waves on signing day.
Stanford had a relatively quiet class with just five 4-stars, while Washington, Cal, Arizona and Utah stockpiled 3-star recruits.
At the bottom of the conference, Mike Leach continued to grasp at smoke in Pullman and Gary Andersen fell victim to a late start in the recruiting cycle at Oregon State.
Leach might have flipped defensive end T.J. Fehoko from Colorado, but had to suffer through multiple losses on signing day. Jonah Moi flipped to Oregon, wide receiver Deontay Burnett decided to walk-on with a blueshirt offer at USC, cornerback Taeon Mason flipped to lowly San Jose State and 4-star linebacker Kyavha decided to sign with San Diego State.
At least for now, the Pac-12 South looks like the division of the future out west.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter
On the Oregon Trail: Pac-12 Recruiting Recap
Josh Schlichter
February 23, 2015
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